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This week President Obama took a stand on net neutrality, calling on the Federal Communications Commission to classify the internet a public utility. Since this is a big topic that will affect the tech industry in a big way, we wanted to express our support for net neutrality. Why? We think it’s important to keep the playing field level for everyone. Not only is this important for the growth of startups, it’s important to well-established cloud services like ours. We want to continue offering the best experience for our users, with the fastest backups and restores possible.

If the FCC does away with net neutrality, internet service providers will be able to charge services such as ours differently depending on where data is coming from, or where it’s going, and slow down those who refuse or are unable to pay. That gives preferential treatment to those who can afford the “fast lane fees,” and slows down the rest. We think that could stifle the growth of potentially phenomenal startups, and disrupt the services that well-established cloud services such as IDrive provide. There will be less competition out there, and that means less innovation.

A free and open internet is great for both startups and established businesses, which is great for the tech industry. Net neutrality gives us a wider, more fertile seedbed for startups to grow, and helps services like IDrive continue to grow based on their merit, not how much they pay ISPs. That means more startups can keep bringing better and better products and services into the world.

An open and free internet gives innovation the room it needs to flourish. An internet run by ISP gatekeepers will simply make that growth more difficult. The free flow of ideas is what made the internet what it is today — a place where those with the biggest ideas, and not the biggest pocketbooks, come out on top. We’d like to see the FCC keep it that way.

Many of you exclusively use mobile devices for your every day computing, from social networking to taking pictures on a vacation to running your business on the move. We created a plan exclusively for you with no storage limits that covers all of your mobile devices.

We’re now offering unlimited storage for up to 5 of your smart phones or tablets for only $4.99 per year. That gives you all the space you need to protect your digital life.

IDrive also puts the key to your data in your hands with private key encryption, so no one but you can access your critical files. This is in addition to the already powerful security we offer with 256-bit AES encryption, the same protection approved for use in encrypting TOP SECRET information by the government. With the recent celebrity photo leaks, you know how important protecting your privacy is. This is a level of control that not even iCloud or Google Drive provide.

As mobile devices continue to evolve, so does the amount of mobile data we use to store our digital lives. The largest first generation iPhone stored 16 GB. But today, the iPhone 6’s storage capacity can reach a whopping 128 GB. With the average household now having multiple smart phones and tablets, it adds up. We created this unlimited plan so that you can protect ALL of your critical data on all these devices without worrying about the storage limits.

Features:

Backup and Restore your mobile data with a single tap

Easily sync files between all linked devices

256-bit AES encryption with an optional private key for extra layer of protection

Facebook and Instagram Backup: backup and restore your selfies from any linked device

Selectively backup and restore files

Share files and folders over a single, secure link

Automatic upload option protects your photos and videos as soon as they are taken via wifi or cellular data

Lock app with a passcode

Easily unlink devices which are lost or stolen

You can learn more about our mobile features here. When it comes to protecting your mobile data, there should be no limits. IDrive for Mobile is available today at the App Store and Google Play.

We’re a taking a new approach to backup, giving our users the best of both worlds with our new Hybrid backup feature. IDrive users can now backup their critical files locally and also in the cloud. Local backup solves one of major pain points of online backup, slow restore speeds. Backing up large amounts of data becomes easy as well with local backup, as the large data sets do not have to be backed up over the internet, as upload speeds can be slowed but rather locally, which offers faster backup.

Users can backup to any mapped drive including hard drives, external drives and shared drives. Data is also secure at the local level with IDrive’s 256-bit AES encryption along with the option for private key encryption.

Our more advanced users looking to backup server data like SQL, Sharepoint, Oracle or Exchange can also take advantage of local backup as its available for server backup as well.

Available at no-cost to IDrive users, local backup is a great addition to any backup strategy. So it’s time to start going Local!

Our new backup service, IDrive DataCenter Edition, is the first of its kind for IDrive, providing enterprise level cloud backup for Linux-based Data Centers and hosting companies and eliminates the need for command line scripting, which is generally a difficult and time-consuming task utilized by other Linux backup services.

In a marketplace dominated by command-line tools for backup, we’re excited to provide an alternative option for our users. Our DataCenter Backup solution brings secure data protection to the Linux platform in a user-friendly way, targeting data centers and hosting companies that manage multiple Linux systems or personal users who have several Linux servers to secure. DataCenter Backup has a web-based Graphical User Interface (GUI), which is also optimized for mobile, enabling offsite management and gives users the ability to perform backup/restore functions as well as administer or schedule tasks from a remote location.

Key Features of IDrive DataCenter Edition:

Easy to install, maintain, and upgrade.

Web-based GUI.

Eliminates the need for scripting.

Remote management for multiple servers at once.

Interactive or automated backup using the scheduler.

Optimized for mobile.

User-based regulation of the amount of bandwidth backups can take up.

Use of 256-bit AES encryption with an optional private key as an extra layer of protection.

We understand the importance of securing mass amounts of data efficiently while staying within a budget. Our IDrive DataCenter solution is currently available for personal or business use with various pricing plan options. Custom storage accounts can also be discussed by contacting our support team.

Ensuring critical company data is securely backed up is essential for the continuity of every business. The use of an onsite storage device, such as QNAP Network Attached Storage (NAS), is a highly utilized method for protecting business data as it provides on location data backup and centralized storage. However, a fully comprehensive disaster recovery strategy must also include an offsite backup of critical data as well.

We realize many NAS users need a more complex backup strategy, so we created the IDrive QNAP Online Backup App for NAS devices. The QNAP Backup App is fast, affordable, and extremely secure, providing the protection every business needs to ensure continuity, even in the face of a data disaster.

Key Features for the IDrive QNAP backup app:

Interactive backup and restore for data present in QNAP NAS devices.

Option for scheduling automatic backups and restores, as per convenience.

Email notifications on completion of scheduled backup operations.

Availability of elaborate log reports detailing account activities.

Files are protected during transfer and storage using 256-bit AES encryption with an optional private key for heightened security.

Real time quota calculation and log status updates for scheduled and manual jobs.

The IDrive QNAP backup app is available, free of charge, for all personal and business IDrive accounts. It’s never worth the risk, make it a priority to protect critical data with a trusted and reliable online backup strategy.

Love is in the air… and, if you use the cloud, so is your data. This Valentine’s Day, show your files and documents just how important they are to you with some extra special TLC.

At IDrive, data is always our number one amor (besides our wonderful customers, of course). Here are some suave tips to help you keep your relationship with your data fresh, exciting, and secure.

Woo your data with your organizational skills. Show it how reliable you are by maintaining a simple, clear, and consistent system for saving and storing files. That way you know where it is at all times and it never feels neglected.

Protect your data with a secure online backup plan. You want your data to feel special and safe, so pacify it with a trusted backup strategy and reassure it that it’s protected from physical harm, natural disasters, software/hardware malfunctions, and any other threat that it may worry about on a day to day basis.

Schedule some private backup time. Setting aside time specifically for your data’s well-being shows that you truly care about it.

Be extra smooth and treat your data to a luxury getaway. Take a trip up to the cloud and pamper it with backups, sharing, and true archiving.

And, always, compliment your data on how good it looks when it’s backed up.

Secure data is happy data. And when your data is happy, you can relax. Like any relationship, you have to put some time and money in to really nurture a healthy balance. Communicate with your data and find out what it needs from you and, in return, when it’s securely backed up and cared for, it can provide you with what you need when the time comes.

Folks, Sugarsync just announced that it is doing away with the free accounts going forward. It is a popular sync and backup service, and this is a major change to their policy. As the CEO of a competing service here at IDrive Inc, I wanted to share some of our thoughts on this.

There are two extreme ends in the cloud backup and sync segment. There are some who offer unlimited storage for very little money. There is hardly any justification from a long term business perspective about how one can really survive with this model. At unlimited offer, and with continuous growth of user data, especially multimedia data in pictures and videos that are getting accumulated on user’s computers, it is a no win situation for backup companies. At the best, it is a marketshare play, at the worst, companies will be burning through their VC money fast. Mozy, a key player in this space backed out of unlimited after 5 years of offering this sort of a plan. Companies resort to put in artificial limits, such as throttling user’s bandwidth, or limit backups to a specific device, or limit file types or at least make it harder for users to choose the big multimedia files to backup to save themselves from getting caught in the unlimited storage tail-spin.

The other end of the spectrum is SugarSync who has a high price/GB and are doing away with anything free.

Ours has always been a sort of a middling approach which we think is more sensible. We offer the best price/GB with a free option that lets consumers and businesses have a full taste of the features that we offer. We offer unlimited device backup for every account. Users are only limited by the space they buy. We are able to do this and stay profitable and can play this long term because of our vertical integration of the whole online backup service chain from owning or leasing our own servers, to our own home grown APIs, all the way up to the desktop and mobile clients. We can offer the best price/GB, best performance, and best set of features in this space. Vertical Integration is the key cornerstone of our strategy for the long term.

So if you are on the sidelines waiting to jump in on the best online backup service, IDrive offers a very compelling long term solution. Give it a spin. It offers free 5GB of storage!

It’s summertime! And we all know what that means…BBQs! Pool parties! 4th of July fireworks and so many other great photo and video opportunities! These are also prime scenarios when iPads slip into the pool, laptops are left behind in the airport, and phones jump into the punch bowl.

These types of accidents are bound to happen sooner or later. That is why you need to be prepared with a reliable backup system, to protect all your important data and valuable files. It would be tragic to lose that picture of uncle Marty’s belly flopping into the pool.

That’s what IDrive Backup is for!

We encourage running backups regularly (as part of your daily routine, like brushing your teeth) to avoid data loss (and plaque buildup). We know summertime and vacations can usher the way to that lax attitude, which is great for your sanity. You need a break and deserve some time to relax and rejuvenate. However, it’s not as great for the errands you don’t feel like running and the data backups you decide can go undone for another day.

Yes, we know we’re starting to sound like your mother. We’ve told you time and again to backup those files, young man! If you don’t run a successful backup on your computer right now, Missy, no dessert for a week!

Nevertheless, it bears repeating because accidents are just waiting to happen during these lackadaisical and less structured times, especially when devices can be under more duress in the heat. Now, if only there was some way to protect my data rather than staying home from the baseball game, to run my backup… Well, of course there is:

Just make sure your scheduled backups are set and running properly!

That’s all? Yep.

We know most of our users probably already use scheduled backups, but it’s never a bad idea to check that your settings are correct and backups are completed successfully.

Making sure your scheduled backups are up and running successfully will prevent you from having to worry about doing it manually. It will also help you relax and have some fun, knowing your data is safe, sound, and securely backed up.

Here at IDrive, we value play as much as we value hard work. We want to guarantee that your playtime isn’t ruined by data loss and frustration. So, double check your backups, put some sunscreen on, and go chase that ice cream truck before it gets too far down the block!

Introducing the new IDrive Portable drive – a USB 3.0 external hard drive with 1 TB capacity. Every drive comes pre-loaded with the powerful new IDrive Portable software, which can be used for encrypted local backups, optionally with a private encryption key.

Rapid Serve with IDrive Portable

With the combination of the IDrive Portable hardware and software, IDrive Business users can now backup 1 TB of data to the cloud via physical storage shipment. This FREE service enables you to backup or restore up to 1 TB of data, often in a week or less, without clogging your bandwidth. If you were to perform this backup entirely over the web, it could take weeks and drastically slow your internet in the process. Utilizing the Rapid Serve option makes it easy to get your data backed up quickly and efficiently. The best part is, data stored on the IDrive Portable is always encrypted, optionally with your private key, so you can rest assured the data will be safe while in transit!

Once the data is done uploading to your IDrive Online Backup account, you can continue incremental backups through the online backup software.

Rapid Serve is a FREE service for IDrive Business users, it is currently available to U.S. Residents only. If you would like to purchase an IDrive Portable drive, it costs only $99.95.

We’re very happy to announce that now we support OAuth, a popular open protocol for API authentication. OAuth provides a much simpler experience for users when connecting to third-party apps.

The biggest benefit of using OAuth is that it provides added security to users, and developers don’t have to maintain/store user credentials. While using third-party apps, OAuth allows access without exposing user credentials. It gives the user control over who is accessing their data, and when. Just a few simple clicks and your account is securely connected to another service.

OAuth is nowhere near simple, but once you understand the dance of tokens and secrets it’s fairly easy to work with. You can find more information about OAuth at IDrive OAuth documentation. If you experience any problem or have questions, send them to support@idrive.com.